Saturday, December 7, 2013
Your new car and eternal happiness
"This prediction error works as follows. You are about to buy a new car. It is going to change your life, elevate your status, and make your commute a vacation. It is so quiet that you can hardly tell if the engine is on, so you can listen to Rachmaninoff’s nocturnes on the highway. This new car will bring you to a permanently elevated plateau of contentment . People will think , Hey, he has a great car, every time they see you. Yet you forget that the last time you bought a car, you also had the same expectations. You do not anticipate that the effect of the new car will eventually wane and that you will revert to the initial condition, as you did last time. A few weeks after you drive your new car out of the showroom, it will become dull . If you had expected this, you probably would not have bought it .
You are about to commit a prediction error that you have already made. Yet it would cost so little to introspect!"
Labels:
Happiness
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